Just have a quick question about flying between Germany and Switzerland -- with the new EU system, is travelling between Germany and Switzerland sort of like domestic air travel? What kind of formalities should I expect?

Switzerland is not part of the European Union and the Schengen treaty. So there still is passport and customs control at both airports (flying out into a country), however this is not anything near US immigration. It is a little bit more strict at airports, but still I have the feeling that I am mostly waived through in both countries with my Swiss passport. When it comes down to travelling by trains, there often aren't any passport controls at all, I am going over the Austrian-Swiss border every day and while the Austrians seem to check every second train or so, I have hardly ever seen Swiss immigration officers checking passports.

if I don't mistake, traveling between Germany and Switzerland is not like domestic air travel. Switzerland is not in the "Schengen zone", Swiss people will vote about it in 2005.
If you fly from France to Geneva, it is like domestic air travel because there is a French terminal in Geneva. When you arrive you can choose :

- if you go to France, you do not have any passport control
- if you go to Switzerland, you have a passport control.

Traveling from Germany, you arrive in the international sector in Geneva and the formalities are the same as if you were arriving from USA.

BTW, there are not domestic terminal in Swiss airports. If you fly from Zurich to Geneva, you go through passport control.

As Thomas pointed out, Switzerland is not in the EU along with Norway, Iceland & Leichtenstein (all EFTA members), and the small nations of Andorra, San Marino, Monaco & the Vatican.

But when it comes to immigration formalities, travel between Switzerland & EU nations are often treated like intra-EU travel. Most Swiss/EU airports have separate lanes for EU/EFTA passport holders, and a separate one for other passports. Both Switzerland and EU nationals still need to present at least a national ID (most EU countries have it, but not the UK) or a passport. Immigration officers often never bother to check the passport pages, usually flashing your passport cover to them is sufficient. Even for a Malaysian passport holder like myself, my passport hardly ever get stamped in GVA/ZRH during my many visits there.

I've been on a train between Denmark & Germany before and someone in my compartment did not bring his Dutch passport. The German border police was a tiny bit suspicious of him (he's not caucasian). All the police officer asked him to do was to speak some Dutch to confirm his Dutch identity. That's it

I just stepped off a ZRH-FRA flight about 2 1/2 hours ago, after transitting through ZRH after arriving from EWR: no checks whatsoever in ZRH, I stayed in the international part of the terminal (which would not have been the case had I entered the Schengen area, where you must clear immigration at the first airport within the area, at least if you're continuing within it) - and when I arrived in FRA, I walked the same route that I did when I arrived from the UK, from HKG or HRE: it is a standard international arrival here.

>I've been on a train between Denmark & Germany before and someone in my compartment did not bring his Dutch passport. The German border police was a tiny bit suspicious of him (he's not caucasian). All the police officer asked him to do was to speak some Dutch to confirm his Dutch identity<

It is strange that the Bundespolizei were even on the train. Since Denmark and Germany are both in the EU, there are not supposed to be border checks. Then again, the Danish police sit behind the abandoned guard station at Flensburg all the time to look for "suspicious people" (southern Denmark can be a little bit more racist than the rest of that amazing country).

It is strange that the Bundespolizei were even on the train. Since Denmark and Germany are both in the EU, there are not supposed to be border checks.

This is a msiconception. Every country within Schengen still have the right to check for identy cards near or at the border. The Dutch customes officials regulary check trains coming from Germany and Belgium. Moreover, everybody must have a valid identy card thus there isn't a big difference between travelling between Schengen countries or non-Schengen countries.

Carfield - please ignore young FlyLondon, of course England is a country.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica online:

Main Entry: En·gland
Pronunciation: 'i[ng]-gl&nd, 'i[ng]-l&nd
1 or Late Latin An·glia /'a[ng]-glE-&/ country S Great Britain; a division of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland capital London area 50,333 square miles (130,362 square kilometers), population 46,161,000

What FlyLondon was trying to say is that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the signatory to all EU legislation, not England alone.